The role of public participation in facilitating integrated development planning for improvement of services in uMhlathuze Local Municipality

Abstract:

Public participation is understood to be an active process in which participants take initiative and action, that is stimulated by their own thinking and deliberation, and over which they can exert effective control. Hence, this study assesses the role of public participation in enhancing provision of services, particularly in the uMhlathuze Local Municipality. This study used both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyse data. Qualitative data was gathered from the municipal officials through the use of semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data was collected from community members through the use of a standardise questionnaires. The analysis of quantitative data was done through the SPSS software programme, whereas the qualitative data analysis was achieved through the application of thematic analysis process. Key findings of this study revealed that there is a lack of communication between the municipality and the public regarding the process of Integrated Development Planning (IDP) formulation and any service delivery plan. Political interference and influence on public participation is another problem that hinders the process of public participation and IDP formulation. Moreover, there is an information gap between the municipality and public in terms of the process of public participation and IDP formulation. The process of IDP formulation does not take the direction and shape of the citizens; rather it is executed through tokenism. This study recommends that the municipality should realign the process of IDP to improve the communication strategy and to ensure that all groups of people, of all ages and social classes, are invited to participate in the process of IDP formulation and present their needs, so that they can be incorporated in the IDP document. The municipality also needs to develop a monitoring and evaluation tool to measure their effectiveness on the impact of public participation to ensure that there is citizen contribution on service delivery planning. The municipality must safeguard political influence on the process of public participation in order to promote participatory democracy that is non-partisan and non-discriminating.

Description:

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of
Master of Public Administration in the Department of Public Administration,
Faculty of Commerce at the University of Zululand, 2018.